crow interests

Out a bit earlier today. No more rain since downpour the other night but plenty small size scattered but quite low altitude cumulus and cool light breezes. Sunny and pleasant, no need for sweaters and jackets, just wore blouse as top. Yesterday was too hot for my jacket, I was soon tying the sleeves round my waste kid style!

2.30 p.m. adult buck gazelle in the pines just down from valley road again, same spot as last time. Bold fellow! Good to see him. I don't know if it was just faulty memory but this one's horns seemed shorter than the horns of the buck we saw the other day. Would be great to ear tag these guys to tell individuals apart so we know how many and who we're dealing with! We could get a real 'meerkat manor' *style gazelle 'soap' going on! (That would be even potentially doable with the hyrax at cypress slum too but would be difficult to guarantee undisturbed cameras. ) At any rate I can't confirm it was a different buck and is more likely it was the same individual, could just have been the perspective.

Small mixed flock of crows, both hooded crows and jackdaws foraging down in the pine woods for a change rather than on the hillslopes. They seemed to be concentrating on a raised section of forest floor near the edge of gazelle field just north of the central trail. The earth is damp, loose and flaky now, easy for them to find any insects and worms just below the surface. There's a lot of damp pine needles and fallen spent pineflowers and the earth is further loosened and excavated by molerats. We spotted one tiny baby lizard in the mulch. The crows were certainly succeeding in their intensive foraging, we watched a hoodie grab and swallow something almost every peck, probably small invertebrates in the leaf litter and loose earth, they were hardly digging at all.

Senegal doves, House sparrows, Yellow vented bulbuls and sunbirds all active. No more white wagtails yet, the ones we saw last saturday must have really been in the vanguard. Plenty jays about, many looking very smart now they've got their fresh plumage, but the occasional more bedraggled one, perhaps immature or ones not doing too well in all the turf battles. Syrian woodpeckers calling and active.

*http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/meerkat.html